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'Georgia values life': Republican lawmakers pass heartbeat abortion ban, latest in US
March 29, 2019 5:52PM ET
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is campaigning for governor (Facebook)
Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature on Friday passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States, outlawing abortion if a doctor is able to detect a heartbeat.
The state’s House of Representatives passed the bill with a 92-78 vote, sending it to Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who is expected to sign it into law. The state Senate previously passed the measure.
“Georgia values life. We stand up for the innocent and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. The legislature’s bold action reaffirms our priorities and who we are as a state,” Kemp said in a Twitter post.
Similar measures have been passed in Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee over the past year. But judges in Iowa and Kentucky blocked the laws earlier this month.
The laws are aimed at getting a case to the Supreme Court to challenge to Roe v. Wade, the court’s 1973 landmark decision which said women have a constitutional right to an abortion, activists on both sides of the issue say.
Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; editing by Bill Tarrant and Leslie Adler
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